1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to an x-ray analysis apparatus comprising an x-ray source, a sample holder and an x-ray detector with detector reading circuit means. The invention also relates to detector reading circuit means for reading signals generated by the x-ray detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
An x-ray analysis apparatus of said kind is described in the European Patent Application EP 0 288 116 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,922,442.
In the x-ray analysis apparatus described in the cited reference, detector reading circuit means is provided for discriminating pulse signals as single or multiple integrated pulse signals and recording said single or multiple integrated pulse signals as numbers of pulse signals. Thus, a solution is provided for the problem how to avoid deviations between an actual and a measured number of pulse signals when, at an increasing rate of incidence of x-ray photons in the x-ray detector, integrated pulses are piled up in case x-ray photons enter the x-ray detector substantially simultaneously. In order to obtain accurate measurements, integration of pulses should be performed up to sufficiently large values of pulse amplitudes. Pulse amplitudes of pulse signals generated by the x-ray detector correspond to values of energies of x-ray photons incident in the x-ray detector. Thus for carrying out accurate measurements of x-ray energy distributions, sufficiently high x-ray energies for integration of the pulse signals should be taken into account.